Ken Macintosh MSP Presiding Officer Scottish Parliament by e-mail Dear Presiding Officer CROSS PARTY GROUP ON PALESTINE – MEETING ON 25 APRIL I am writing to raise some concerns about a discussion which happened at the Cross- Party Group on Palestine on 25 April, which I attended. As you know, this CPG normally has a significant attendance from external bodies and individuals. I emailed the official Parliamentary contact, Amanda Gordon, on 23 April asking that I and Nigel Goodrich, CEO of the International Shalom Festival, be added to the list of attendees. Amanda kindly emailed back on 24 April confirming our attendance and notifying me of the changed start time of 1830. I also consulted the Scottish Parliament website for the agenda which was – and still is - as per the following screenshot: When the meeting started, Vice-Convenor Sandra White MSP passed round a different agenda, which included an item on the definition of antisemitism in Scotland. This replaced the Balfour item we were expecting and had not been on the agenda on the Parliament’s website. However, having consulted the minutes of previous meetings, I see that it was raised by Philip Chetwynd, the Treasurer of the CPG, at the October 2016 meeting, and discussion deferred from the February 2017 meeting at the request 222 Fenwick Road, Giffnock, Glasgow, G46 6UE T: 0141–638 6411 ● F: 0141–577 8202 ●
[email protected] ● www.scojec.org The Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) is Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation no. SC029438 of Sandra White. It was also stated at some point in the meeting on 25 April that Ross Greer MSP would be chairing this item, but Ross Greer did not attend the meeting.